The Best Tour of Homes Part I

I live in such an incredible place. I always wish you are with me when I take a walk, and I have begun sharing the homes I pass on my walks every day on Instagram. But since some of you aren’t on Instagram, I thought I would share them with you here.

At a minimum, they are gorgeous  look at.

I am hoping you can get some ideas of things you can incorporate into your own home as well. Shall we begin?

I live in the Heights, a neighborhood in Houston. When it was founded in 1891, it was a town separate from Houston. Later in 1918 it was annexed by Houston. It is 23 feet higher than downtown, which explains why we have survived the recent flooding without major problems. It boomed for many years and grew when Houston grew, while still maintaining a small town feel.

Over the decades, it faced the same problems other inner city neighbors faced, crime and drugs problems became rampant. People moved away and the buildings began to deteriorate.  In the 1970’s residents and business owners united to save the neighbor, investing in the old homes.

Revitalization was slow, but continued into the 1990’s, when the Heights began to have a resurgence. Many old homes have been renovated, while others have been moved to other locations. Many houses that were falling apart have been torn down.

The homes I will be showing you are a mix of old and new.

This first home I would call a New Orleans style home. I love the ironwork and the dormer windows. There are not many brick homes here, so that is unique. Although it looks old this one is probably fairly new.

The homes originally built here have a pier and beam foundation rather than a concrete foundation which is more typical in Houston. The new homes are typically built with pier and beam or spread footings so they fit in with the older homes. That means the houses are up 2 to 3 ft typically off the ground. That is also the way to go considering the amount of flooding our city has seen lately. I wish all the homes were built this way.

You will also note the iron fencing which is very common here. This next house I would call Low Counry. It also has dormer windows with the center one being more prominent. Note the iron porch railing. The Craftsman style homes usually have wood railings. It is also very common in the Heights to have a front porch. This house I also believe is new.

I really love this next house, partly because it is so unique to this area. It looks like many I have seen in the museum district. I am on the fence as to whether this house is old or new. I am going to guess that it is old. Note that there are no shutters on the house, and no porch.

Here is another Low Country home below. I believe this house to be new. It has a generous front porch, but this one has a wood railing. Again the center dormer window is larger than the two flanking windows.

Lastly for today, I’ve got a Craftsman style home. This home I believe is old. I remember when they did some work to update this one. It had clapboard siding. I think they may have added the stone on the columns later. It also had a cool garage apartment not shown. There are by far more Craftsman style home than any other in my neighborhood. Because of the age of the neighborhood there are a few Victorian homes still standing and a lot of Craftsman style homes, which came later. I know visitors to the area can’t tell which homes are old and which are new, but if you live here and see them every day, you begin to notice the differences. And I worked with a few builders so that helps too.

I have a bunch more to show you, so I hope you come back to see them.

Get my ebook, 8 Ways to Add Farmhouse French Style and 3 more bonus PDFs, and my emails... it's all FREE!

CEDAR HILL FARMHOUSE - updated country French style

Your information will never be shared or sold to a 3rd party.